It is highly likely that a bill to legalise euthanasia, introduced by Greens MP Robin Chapple, is going to be debated in West Australia’s Upper House next week. ACL is urging people who reside in the state and who value the unique and intrinsic worth of all human beings, no matter what their physical, mental or emotional state might be, to speak out against this law.

WA supporters please visit our ‘Care not killing’ campaign at www.makeastand.org.au to send an email to the Upper House MPs in your region letting them know that you are opposed to legalised euthanasia, because it devalues life by sending the dangerous message to the community that some lives are not worth living.

The Care not killing campaign site contains all the information you need to send a short but informed email to your elected representatives. It only takes a few minutes to add your voice to the debate.

We know from experience both in Australia (Northern Territory) and overseas (Netherlands; Oregon, USA) that even with ‘safeguards’ in place, euthanasia laws overreach beyond their boundaries to put the lives of vulnerable depressed, elderly, sick and disabled people at risk. In the Netherlands doctors are even now euthanising newborn babies with legal immunity.

Legalised euthanasia is dangerous law that creates a culture of death. In a society where mental illness, depression and suicide are all too common, we need to be promoting the value of life and worth of every individual. Please visit the Care not killing campaign site today.

Meanwhile, the euthanasia battle has resurfaced on a number of other fronts this week. South Australian politicians have announced that they will introduce voluntary euthanasia legislation into that state’s parliament, despite euthanasia laws being knocked back in the upper house as recently as late last year.

Labor backbencher Steph Key will today introduce a euthanasia bill into the Lower House while Greens member Mark Parnell will put the identical bill to the Legislative Council (on September 29). They believe this strategy will improve their chances of ‘success’. Opposition health spokesman Duncan McFetridge and independent Geoff Brock have already offered their backing for the bill.

Earlier in the week the NT News sought to again kick-start the euthanasia debate in the country’s north by citing prominent euthanasia supporters Dr Philip Nitschke, and former chief minister Marshall Perron, in response to a ‘Reader Issues Survey’ that alleged widespread public support for reinstatement of the Territory’s banned euthanasia laws.

The NT’s short-lived Rights of the Terminally Ill Act was made inoperable by Commonwealth legislation in 1997 that prevented the territories legislating euthanasia. Greens federal leader Bob Brown made a failed attempt to overturn the Commonwealth legislation in 2008, and is reported to be planning a similar tactic in the new parliament to keep euthanasia on the political radar.